The present application concerns detecting unsuccessful terminations and performing successful terminations of wire leads to tang terminals of dynamo-electric machine components.
Typical prior art armature winders are described in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,594 to Lombardi et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,745 to Lombardi et al., which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
Wire grippers have been employed in the prior art winders to grasp and hold the wires, which have been delivered from two flyer arms. Wire grippers typically grasp and hold the wires after the armature has been wound.
Prior to the winding of the armature, wires typically extend from the two flyer arms to respective wire grippers. The wire grippers are holding the wires after the winding and removal of the previous armature. The first step before winding the armature is typically to attach the wires to start points on the commutator (e.g., tang terminals). This process of attaching the wires occurs by rotating the flyer into position and the use of well-known tooling present in the winder. Each of the wires is typically attached to the commutator by wrapping the wire around a tang of the commutator. When the wires are attached to the commutator, the wires extend from the flyer arms to the commutator and then to respective wire grippers. A first tearing step may occur where each of the wire grippers, holding its respective wire, moves in a direction away from the commutator. The wire grippers move away from the commutator in order to pull the wire and tear it against an edge of the commutator during this movement (e.g., the edge of the tang terminal on which the wire has been attached). After the wires have been terminated, the two wires extend from the flyer arm to the commutator and the armature is ready to be wound.
The portions of wire that have been terminated are held with the wire grippers. The wire grippers may deposit these portions in a waste collector as described in commonly-assigned Stratico et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/371,156, filed Aug. 9, 1999, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
After the armature has been wound, the wires are typically attached to the commutator as described above. The wires at this point extend from the flyer arms to the commutator. Each wire gripper then grasps a respective wire at a point between the flyer arm and the commutator. Each wire gripper holds the respective wire so that the wire does not run out of the gripping portion. A second tearing step may occur where each of the wire grippers, holding its respective wire, moves in a direction away from the commutator as described above.
After the second tearing step, the wires extend from the flyer arms to the wire grippers. This frees the completely wound armature from the wires so that the armature can be unloaded from the winder. Once the wound armature is unloaded, the winder is then available to accept another armature for winding.
The termination processes that tear the wires attached to the commutator by moving the wire grippers away from the commutator are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,812,577 to Compton et al., which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. During the tearing steps, one of the wires may be torn against its respective wire gripper instead of an edge of the commutator. This results in an excessive length of stray wire that extends from the commutator. Such a length of stray wire from the commutator can interfere with further manufacturing steps of the armature.
These termination processes are also performed on very thin wire leads. Very thin wire leads may have a high probability of tearing at locations other than from the desired tang edge.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to detect improper wire terminations of coil leads to tang terminals of dynamo-electric machine components.
It is also an object of the present invention to stop further processing of a component which has an improper wire termination.
It is also an object of the present invention to facilitate the tearing of very thin wires along the desired edge of a tang terminal.
These and other objects of the invention are accomplished in accordance with the principles of the present invention by providing sensor arrangements to detect whether the initial and final wire leads were properly terminated to tang terminals of dynamo-electric machine components. When an initial wire lead is terminated to a tang terminal, excess wire which needs to be removed from the tang terminal is stretched between an edge of the tang terminal and a side of a wire gripper. When the initial wire lead is successfully terminated, the excess wire is torn on the edge of the tang terminal. When the initial wire lead is not successfully terminated, the excess wire can be torn on the side of the wire gripper.
Similarly, when a final wire lead is terminated to a tang terminal, excess wire which needs to be removed from the tang terminal is stretched between an opposite edge of the tang terminal and an opposite side of the wire gripper. When the final wire lead is successfully terminated, the excess wire is torn on the edge of the tang terminal. When the final wire lead is not successfully terminated, the excess wire can be torn on the side of the wire gripper.
Sensor arrangements are provided to detect whether the excess wire from the termination of the initial or final wire lead is present on its respective side of the wire gripper. If the excess wire is present, then the wire termination was successful. If the excess wire is absent, then the wire termination was not successful. If the wire termination was not successful, appropriate actions may be taken to stop further processing of the armature.
The sensor arrangements may include optical fiber sensors, vision devices, tactile sensors, or any other suitable sensors for detecting whether the excess wire is present on each side of the wire gripper. In one suitable approach, the sensor arrangement may include two sensors, one sensor for each side of the wire gripper. The sensors may be supported by the wire gripper through a support structure or may be supported independently from the wire grippers.
In another suitable approach, the sensor arrangement may include a single sensor to detect the presence of the excess wire on both sides of the wire gripper. In this approach, the sensor can be positioned near each side of the wire gripper so that it may detect whether the excess wire exists on either side of the wire gripper.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a plunger device is be provided to facilitate the tearing of the initial and final wire leads to tang terminals of a commutator. The plunger device engages the excess wire which needs to be removed at a position between the tang terminal and the wire gripper. The plunger device can move the excess wire to cause it to tear along a desired edge of the tang terminal.